Jack Daniel's maker Brown-Forman sees sales fall as Trump trade conflicts weigh on spirits producers [View all]

Source: AP

Updated 5:38 PM EDT, June 5, 2025


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Brown-Forman Corp. reported weaker sales Thursday as the maker of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey confronts challenging market conditions amid global trade conflicts and pinched consumer spending.

The Louisville, Kentucky-based spirits giant said its full-year net sales of nearly $4 billion were down 5% from a year ago, and fell 7% in in the fourth quarter. Net income was down 15% for the full fiscal year and plunged 45% in the fourth quarter ending April 30, the company said.

The quarterly drop came as Brown-Forman and other U.S. spirits producers who rely heavily on foreign sales felt the reverberations from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans and consumer anxiety about the economy. Brown-Forman also offered a sobering assessment for the coming year.

Having steered the company through an “extremely challenging and uncertain operating environment” in the past year, Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting predicted another challenging year ahead. “Fiscal 2025 was a year unlike any other that I’ve seen in the past three decades,” he said during a conference call with industry market analysts.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/brownforman-earnings-tariffs-consumer-spending-2b36a2efc7334fc2ec1ed0eab2604252